It has become impossible to ignore most of the web threats we face today. It can be dangerous to enter a random website shown by Google. Some websites can contain malware that may disguise itself as a Flash plugin update or infect the web browser itself leaving the user in the dark.

We can easily conclude that web browsers need protection from viruses. But how do you actually secure a web browser from the web? Well, many browsers support add-ons and extensions. Some of them can be very useful.

Some words about browsers

Not every major browser is open sourced. The app nature means a lot when your goal is ultimate security and privacy. Only one major browser has an open source nature, and that is Firefox. It is stable, has support for all modern web technologies and is, therefore, a great choice for most users. Google Chrome lovers seeking open source might want to try Chromium (which is an open source browser that Google Chrome is build upon).

Most users might find this choice trivial but the latest versions of this add-on provide powerful protection against malware, in addition to blocking annoying ads. You can find different forks and versions of the add-on in your browser extension market. We recommend going for the one which has greatest number of installs and feedback from users.

Noscript

This extension is super-useful for those users who do not trust websites with active scripts. The thing is it can be hiding a malicious code which infects the browser the moment you enter the website. NoScript web browser extension is probably the best way to prevent Java and Javascript from running. You can create custom rules, block every script and more with this extension. It is a very useful tool indeed.

HTTPS Everywhere

We’ve mentioned this extension in one of our previous articles. It provides security by blocking any website that does not have a HTTPS SSL certificate or forces encryption when a website does not have one. Such certificates are needed to prevent any man-in-the-middle attacks while the user is browsing a website. Read more in our post about Web Security.

BetterPrivacy

This extension helps a lot when you need to purge long-term cookies aka super-cookies. Most marketing companies use these cookies to track users and their behavior on the web to later push spam and ads. Most browsers do not have an option to delete these cookies; this is why this extension makes a lot of sense.

Ghostery

This security add-on blocks trackers to prevent Google, Facebook and others from tracking your web activity. There is a catch though. Some users claim the extension can become a tracking solution itself using the built-in Ghostrank feature which can send anonymous user stats to advertising companies. Luckily, the feature can be disabled. Overall, Ghostery is a great security tool.

Disconnect

This is another great track blocker. It will pretty much act like Ghostery but without The Ghostrank feature. Developers of Disconnect also claim it can block tracking elements from over 2000 sources which can hypothetically give a 27% page loading speed boost.

Umatrix

With Umatrix, you get a simple firewall built into the web-browser. You can manage site permissions and create rules. You can toggle it whenever you want and add dynamically new rules to it. The options are provided as a matrix with colored red and green parts. This is as intuitive as it can get.

Blur

Users may have heard of DoNotTrackMe. Well, Blur is its successor providing even more useful functionality. It does block certain marketing companies from tracking users and gathering their browsing history. It also has interesting extra features which protects your sensitive details online including passwords and credit card information (with the help of Abine Inc. for $5 per month).

Self-destructing cookies

Using this extension, you can achieve advanced cookies deletion. Most browsers only offer simple cookies deletion which may not eliminate some hard-dying ones. Self-destructing cookies deal with that and can delete all of the cookies from the website in question once you close the page tab. If you value some cookies, you can add them to white list to prevent their deletion.

Lastly, we’d like to draw your attention to an advanced password manager that you can get for your browser. It is, in fact, a browser version of the popular KeePass password manager. It offers more advanced password management compared to a browser built-in functionality. LastPass is also a solid alternative. It is, however, not open source and also not completely free; therefore, we recommend trying KeeFox first.

Privatoria is your secure and confidential Internet

Privatoria is also working on browser extension for anonymous web surfing. You will be able to change and hide your real IP and use Tor without Tor browser in one click. Follow the updates!

You are able to use a bundle of Privatoria online security services to protect your online privacy: Secure VPN to encrypt your traffic, VPN Plus Tor service to get double protection, Anonymous Proxy to change IP, Anonymous E-mail, Secure Chats, Secure Cloud Storage, and Secure DNS.

Conclusion

Securing the web browser experience is something you at least want to consider doing in 2015 with all of the threats on the Internet. Browser extensions and add-ons will definitely help a lot in doing that. We hope you liked our Top 10 list. Please let us know what you think in the comments.